A dangerous precedent: Voting rights group slams ‘short-sighted’ decision to slash Hillsborough election budget

Stock image via Adobe.

Hillsborough County Commissioners voted to cut the Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections Office budget by $200,000, despite the agency’s budget having already been approved.

Commissioner Josh Wostal called for the reduction, citing “a historic and unexpected 11.5% drop in active registered voters” in 2024, according to the Tampa Bay Times.

But a voting rights group isn’t buying the rationale.

“This sizable cut to the Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections budget sets a dangerous precedent for elections in Florida if county officials can arbitrarily slash necessary funding whenever they want,” said Brad Ashwell, the Florida State Director for the group All Voting is Local.

“County Commissioners are making a very short-sighted decision by justifying the budget cut due to outreach by the supervisor of election to inactive voters.”

Responding to Wostal’s beef about voter registration, Ashwell said Florida has become a state that is less than hospitable to voters.

“Years of suppressive voting legislation in the state are now bearing fruit. One of Florida’s many new anti-voter laws has made it more likely that voters will be removed from voter rolls through additional list maintenance, thus giving Hillsborough County Commissioners a bogus excuse to take away already-approved funding for the supervisor of elections office,” he said.

“Funding for our elections directly improves essential voting functions that make the process less confusing or burdensome for voters.”

Ashwell said the decision will not only “negatively affect voters across the Tampa Bay area,” but also “has the horrifying potential to reverberate across the state if other counties follow suit.”

Ashwell isn’t the only one concerned with the move. Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections Craig Latimer said the 100,000 voters Wostal referenced in his claim about reduced voter rolls are real people — Wostal referred to them as “ghost” voters — who just don’t update their voter information regularly. He said they haven’t been removed from rolls and remain eligible to vote, according to the Tampa Bay Times.

And the move was partisan. Republicans on the Commission — Donna Cameron Cepeda, Ken Hagan, Michael Owen and Wostal — all voted for the reduction, while Democrats — Harry Cohen, Pat Kemp and Gwen Myers — all voted against it.